Making Sustainability in the Arts a Priority

If we individually go green, our collective effort would be important, but if we green our arts institutions as well, our impact will be exponential. Many organizations are enormous consumers of a wide array of products, electricity, heating oil, water, and instigate a lot of patron transportation activity. Arts organizations are leaders in their communities, and they can lead by example and inspire individuals and other organizations to also do their part. Greening not only reduces the detrimental carbon load on the planet, but also frees dollars that could be spent on better pay for staff members, more scholarships, additional open hours, and additional green initiatives.

Internationally, many arts organizations are already doing their part to cut their carbon footprint. And for all those who are not, fortunately there are easy steps all organizations can take towards a sustainable future. But where does one get the information needed to trim your arts organizations carbon footprint?

At the AAAE conference, I presented how my online course Greening Your Arts Nonprofit Organization offers just that information. It is offered this fall and can be taken as part of the 100% online Certificate programs in Arts Management of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. In Greening, I teach my students how to:

In addition, students focus on areas unique to their institution, geography, budget, facility, as well as programmatic concerns (safe art supplies, cleaner concessions, proper gallery lights, etc.).